


A mess of me

by Dovey



Category: Naruto
Genre: (abuse is not in reference to the pairing), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Stalking, Yandere, implied anorexia, mentions of disordered eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-21 13:23:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13741821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dovey/pseuds/Dovey
Summary: In which Sai is a good ANBU agent with an unusual hobby, and Sakura grows up with a #1 fan rooting for her....even if she doesn't know it.Or: Sai starts stalking Sakura when they're both young to satisfy his curiousity about 'normalcy', gets attached, and eventually gets very frustrated that nobody else seems to notice her potential as a shinobi and takes matters into his own hands- and delights in being Sakura's prime source of validation because of it.





	1. One-sided Introductions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Esmenet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmenet/gifts).



Sai did not mind his work.

He was very careful not to. He would let his thoughts slide past the pain and misery of his training, the blood and gore of his work, and let his focus rest on the warm sense of accomplishment for a job well done, a task complete, a lesson learned. He lived his life in a haze of missions and sleeping and training, a blur with little focus.

He is six years old when he first sees the girl:

She is his age, maybe younger, and she seems….normal.

It’s unusual, to him, this normalcy: she’s _scared_ about something, and she’s showing it. She was big wobbly tears and a skinned knee and foolishly long, bright pink hair. It’s fascinating, to see it, the heat in her ears and the sloppy inefficient way she’s running from whatever it is she’s scared of. He’s seen people outside of root before, of course, but they’ve never struck him so suddenly as _not root._ She’s blindingly, vocally foreign to him, in every way he can notice, and it’s fascinating.

He’s supposed to be practicing hiding in plain sight, and there’s no order against following a particular target, so he follows her.

She scrambles into a tree, paying no mind to the new scratches that form on the way up, and group of little girls come running past and don’t stop to check the tree. They’re foolish, especially the half that’s clan brats and should know better, but Sai delights in her escape. It’s odd, to feel something so strongly, especially about someone else’s victory: it breaks through the haze of his routine in a lovely, gut-warming way.

She hides in the tree for a while, and her sobs are loud even as she tries so poorly to hide them. When she climbs back down it’s with an air of begrieved success, and something tells him this is a very common experience for her.

He follows her home, hiding behind walls or in crowds, even attempting a jutsu to appear like a slightly older child to avoid less detection by the adults around him. It’s his best attempt yet, suitably convincing, and the part of his mind that scouts for danger and checks his food for poison makes note of it in a calculating way. Motivation, then, really is a good way to improve: he has never been motivated before and it’s an interesting lesson to learn.

Her name is Sakura Haruno and she’s a civilian, but she’s attending the ninja academy. Her family are low level merchants and….interesting. He takes the risk of sneaking into the house, sliding behind her as she clumsily closes the too-big front door, and is a little ashamed at the family’s lack of surveillance that he remains unnoticed even now. She walks up the stairs quietly and hides food in her room, and Sai is the opposite of an expert but he thinks this is unusual for a normal family. He doesn’t want to push his luck, and despite his enchantment with all his new lessons and self-imposed tests, he makes his way out of a side window and returns to root to make a report on his successful training of the day.

 He can’t keep away.

 He doesn’t know what it is, but he knows it’s worth chasing. He’s tried to follow others since that first day, and while it proved informative, he didn’t have the same drive to learn more or push his skills to gain that entry. He followed low level ninja and felt pity for the village’s subpar training, followed important ranking merchants and felt frustration at the mediocre guards. With Sakura, he felt nothing but excitement: every piece of information was a novelty, something he would turn over in his mind when practicing kata and pressing his blade to an opponent’s throat.

 Her windows have terrible locks, and her parents do not spend much time in the house, so he spends a day practicing deciphering her room for as much information as he can.

 In the week of his absence, she appears to have made a friend, and her room already has a few photos of her and the girl together. She has pressed flowers from the girl carefully preserved in a hefty text that clearly wasn’t intended for her age range, but had the highlighting and dog-ears to prove that she’d been perusing it. There was a thrill of pride in him at that, and he took careful stock of her library quickly after that. It was filled with books for varying ages, some adventure novels and some sketchy look romance books and a lovely stack of ninjutsu and mathmatetics focused books hidden towards the bottom of it all.

Her clothes are all impractical and brightly colored, and it’s with a mixture of affection and disdain that he closes the closet and considers the rest of her space. She has stuffed animals, and he pushes at them with the odd desire to snort: he did not think bunnies looked anything like that, and couldn’t understand the concept of taking comfort in the basterdization of a tasty dinner.

He finds her stashes of food and has to admire her ability to hide them: underneath drawers and behind the bookcase, much more clever than the under-the-bed routine some of the merchants he had followed had used to hide their far more valuable items. He also finds a kunai stashed in a drawer, and is delighted at her gumption: he can barely keep himself from placing a few of his own there, to give her more to train with. He is less pleased with the discovery of a hidden, half-used first aid kit. He used  these sorts of things for himself, but had assumed that civilian children, at least, could be tended to by hospitals without the need for secrecy that missions imposed. Perhaps he had assumed wrong, but it seemed more likely this was another Haruno specific trait that would need further investigation to fully understand. The thought is not despairing- he is enjoying this investigation, and would love a repeat of the experience.

 He finds her diary and is overwhelmed with the excitement of getting to know her thoughts in a more personal way than even people who knew her, who talked to her, could. He puts it back and saves it for later: right now, he wants to inspect her house.

There are no pictures of Sakura, but many pictures of her parents. There’s more than one safe, and the clothes in the adult’s closet are just as impractical as Sakura. There is little worth note in the house, at least because it so clearly lacks her presence: he’s not interested in the Haruno savings or heirlooms, much less her parents day-to-day lives.

 It is with a great deal of satisfaction he returns to his usual training, with the promise of seeing the girl again in his mind and the possibility of getting to hear her speak on the horizon.

 It becomes his _quirk,_ among the anbu, and he finds he doesn’t mind the teasing too much when they let him get away with it so long as it improves his skills so well as it seems to be. They don’t bother to learn who it is or why, and he spends the time he can following around the pink-haired girl and _learning._

She’s smart, and loud, and very emotional. She’s weak and unskilled and unfit for the battles of a child, much less those of the ninja she wants to be. She likes a boy names Sasuke who is mean, and she loves her best friend Ino who is kind, and she wants to be _at least a Jounin, maybe more, even though most civilains don’t getta be that important._ Her parents are not kind, and she doesn’t write about them in her diary Just In Case.


	2. The Academy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to split it up by major time skips/events. Sakura attends the academy; Sai learns what it feels like to be disappointed for someone else, and maybe- maybe (!) how to feel a little jealous.

By the time she enters the academy, Sakura only has one friend.

Technically, she always only had one friend, and now she has none, but Sai has grown very attached and imagines they count as friends by now. He knows more about her than anyone else, after all, and when he returns from missions drenched in paranoia he keeps guard in the tree outside her window to keep her safe.

 Still, he wishes she had not ended her more….substantial, friendship, for the sake of a boy who isn’t even nice to her. But he understands why, more than anyone else, because he always understands when it comes to sakura. (And if he doesn’t, he will pry the mystery apart and divide it into bits and puzzle it back together until he does. He will relish the challenge.)

 Sai remembers the day she had asked Ino why she didn’t want to get married, as boy-crazy as the girl is, and dead-set on winning the love of the Uchiha boy at that. It’s a reasonable question, and he affords it a slim amount more attention than he usually would. Most of his focus remained on considering what Sakura would look like if she cut her hair short like her classmate hinata’s. Would it spike up like that boy Naruto, or puff out? These were much nicer thoughts to occupy his head than what he’d done yesterday for his village, and he lets them draw his mind away from the completed mission.

“When you get married, you gotta leave your family! And I don’t wanna leave my momma and dad ever, especially not to go live with some dumb family I don’t know!” Ino had sniffed, gesturing wildly at the very idea.

“You leave?” Sakura asks, as if it’s never occurred to her before. Most civilians simply united their houses, after all. Ino nodded vigorously.

“Clans can’t get all mixed up n’ stuff, so when you get married you’re in _that_ clan and you can’t live with your family no more, even though it’s supposed to be making your clans closer or whatever. Like I said, it’s dumb!”

 

Sai can see her point. He did not enjoy being separated from his brother at all, which is another thought he enjoys slipping past as quickly as possible. But Sakura is different: he can see the gears in her heard turning as quickly as they can, and when she later goes to the library and checks out books on clan traditions, he knows a plan is forming. He loves her little plans, but so rarely do they work in her favor: she’s too optimistic to temper them with common sense. He’s sure a few years in the academy will take care of that, but for now, it’s a lovely budding start to a strategic mind that will rival that of the Nara, he’s sure.

 The Uchiha will marry their children as young as thirteen- the youngest of all the clans, in this day and age- and while clan heirs cannot be married outside the family, the young boy in her grade is not an heir. Her fanciful dreams of holding his hand, maybe going on date on day, are quickly turning to calculations: If she marries this boy, she can _escape,_ and her parents will not even mind because it would be a beneficial connection.

Sai loves his clever target, but wishes she could be subtler. Her plan might work if she was capable of wooing, but the boy already dislikes her on principle and she’s not charismatic enough to win him over with her clumsy, desperate attempts. Sai is the only one who knows why she needs this, so intensely, and to everyone else- including the Uchiha- it’s embarrassing to watch.

A small part of him points out that she had, at one point, liked the boy for his looks, and that he _also_ has black hair and black eyes and that if he had not been in ROOT, he might be in the same class as her right now. He does not settle on this thought, because it sounds a little too close to a daydream, and those are risky.

 His sketchbook is filled with sketches of Sakura’s life, of her room and house and school and her favorite training yard and the tree they had ‘met’ at those years ago. He refrains from drawing Sasuke face on, and pretends it is not petty.

 He soon learns to feel frustration, as Sakura’s lessons officially begin and the reality of this academy become clear. If you are clan, you have training at home and a bloodline to rely on. Then you come to class and get rewarded for your edge with special attention.

Sakura is one of only three civilian students who stay past the first year, and things do not improve.

Her teachers are kind, but distant, and only push her in the classes aimed at girls- the things they deem useful for when she inevitably, apparently, drops out of the academy. She has near-perfect scores on their tests and is a quick study on forms. (He thinks, bitterly, that she has to be: she does not have someone to refresh the forms for her at home, or corrections from the teacher if she gets it wrong.)

He does not wish for her to have his training. Something…. riles in him, at the thought of that. But he thinks there is a place between endless bloody practical experience, and this forced ignorance, and if any student in this academy deserves it, it’s his target. She is dedicated, and smart, and her silly crush does not prevent her from learning what she needs to learn at an exemplary level.

Her focus suffers for it, eventually, as she begins to believe she’s not cut out for the coveted top spot and shifts her intent more and more onto Sasuke. She desperately wants out of her house, and her teachers have made it clear they don’t see her potential as a chuunin: if she cannot earn her way out, she will do what it takes, and it makes Sai’s blood boil that this is what she is being forced to resort to.

If she had been put into ROOT, he knows she would be a top ranker by now: she would be so good at the clever, hidden assassinations that ANBU so often requires. If she was simply payed attention to by anyone with the skills to see it, surely they would spot what Sai has known for so long: this girl is absolutely brimming with potential, the kind that can grow to outclass any bloodline inherited advantage.

Perhaps he has an advantage, seeing as he’s read her diary and watched her for five years now, intently from the shadows. But they are Konoha teachers, and it should be their duty to spot that spark and help it grow.

But Sai does not interfere, because there is little he can do but kill them, and he fears the replacement teachers will be just as complacent as the first. The insufferable attention it might bring was an additional reminder to wait.

His target is stubborn, and he’s sure she will stick it out until the graduating teams are formed. A jounin-sensei, who’s very job is to understand and assist his very small unit of students, will see it. Then Sakura will get the training she needs, and she will be fearsome and powerful and important, and if he is lucky he will get to be on her team or serve as her guard or know her, and have her know him back.

 This is the one dream he lets himself keep, because it is sensible and possible and hopeful, and when his missions are long and his nights are endless and he comes back with fewer teammates then he left with, he needs it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't have the experience to write long fics yet, but hopefully this one will be thorough enough to still be fully satisfying.


	3. Team Seven is formed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sai does not like Kakashi.

Sai is not happy.

Sakura’s last year in the academy is, at first, a very good one. Her parents are away on business for a majority of it, and Sakura works odd jobs in her free time to afford her meals, and one night he even finds evidence that she ate her dinner in the kitchen that day, crumbs and plates and proof that she let herself risk it. There is no evidence the next day, and he admires her skill in hiding her presence, just in case. Precaution is always admirable in a shinobi.

 

 She does well in her classes, too, even if this Iruka-Sensei pays as little attention to her as past teachers. This time it smarts a little more, because the man finds time for the loud brat in the back of the class with little to no potential, as far as Sai can see. And yet almost every day, the teacher stays after to train with the kid and buy him dinner, as if he has half the potential to be an asset as Sakura. Why can none of her teachers spare that effort for her?

Then Danzo dies, and Sai’s days grow very long.

With no leader, and no more seals on their tongues, Root is disbanded and reabsorbed into the standard ANBU. He’s given an apartment with his wages, and required time off from missions as the Hokage attempts to sort out the mess this has placed in his lap. Sai does not bother to figure out why Danzo dies- the man can no longer give orders, which means his purpose and power are gone. Sai owes no loyalty to the corpse of a man he does not even know.

He tries to decorate his apartment, and fails miserably until he begins to copy his sketches of Sakura’s room. It’s not the most secure of buildings, and it’s only once his walls are pink like hers and peppered in sketches of the photos he can remember that things feel familiar enough for him to relax. His only personal touch is his unfinished picture book, hidden in his desk drawer where Sakura kept her Kunai all those years ago.

These are not the reasons that Sai is unhappy. These are all manageable changes. Some are even positive. Sai is unhappy because Sakura graduates, and is assigned the great Copy Nin Kakashi, and he is foolish enough to believe his hopes have been answered.

Kakashi is respectable. He is talented, both by genetics and by determination, and he is important in the village. Most importantly, he is clever, and his beliefs easy to find with very little effort. It is…..difficult, to spend so much time away without watching over Sakura, but he needs to make sure she’s going to be in capable hands.

 Kakashi is, to put it simply, the perfect shinobi for sakura on paper. Sai’s research makes this much clear. The man has no regard for politics or clan desires, having failed ten academy groups in the past despite their sometimes high-ranking members. He puts protecting teammates above all else, even the mission, which is a terrifying concept that takes Sai three days to fully absorb. (In the end, he is only able to resolve the internal dilemma by accepting that protecting teammates might be an internally assigned mission with top ranking priority. He allows this, because he is beginning to feel that the situation with Sakura is something similar for him, whatever the mission objective is.) And the man’s motto is to _look beneath the underneath,_ which is very promising for spotting Sakura’s hidden potential.

It is worth the upsetting truth that with such a talented sensei, Sai will no longer be able to so easily tail Sakura. The man is ANBU- Sai can see it in his stance, and has set his sights on figuring out which of his teammates is Kakashi- which means he will never stop looking for threats. Sai, cloaking himself and trailing them, would register as a threat.

 He is tenser than he has been in a very long time because of this. He’s too on-edge to focus on his art very much, and turns his attention to learning how to cook instead. Now that Sakura has a talented teacher, it’s only a short matter of time before she is promoted and they can work together and he can feed her.

 He still does not fully understand the line between normal and not normal in her relationship with her parents, but he knows that food is important to survival, that watching others eat has taught him that it can be enjoyable too, and he deeply wishes to give that gift to Sakura.

He is very bad at cooking, but he learns. Cooking is about feeling things, about assessing how much or how little suits the room and the day and the food. Baking comes much easier since it’s a matter of rules and sciences, and he hopes that Sakura has a sweet tooth.

 He is careful to follow her to and from training every day, however, because as nervous as he is about getting caught, there is a growing worry that she will get hurt when he is not there. There are so many things that can go wrong and Sakura is so trusting and untrained right now that she would be unable to handle most of them.

 He begins to notice, as the days go on, that she is not tired when she comes back from training. Her muscles are not developing, and he does not overhear her practicing new jutsus or attempting to use new weapons at night.

Every morning when she meets with her team- the insufferable Uchiha and the nice Naruto, who is winning Sai over very quickly with his constant encouragement of Sakura, if general sense of stupidity- they are alone. He begins to stay longer and longer, hovering far enough away to quickly retreat, until eventually he despairs to realize that her new sensei values his job so little that he is _hours_ late to training every day.

 Sai even stays to watch one day, eventually, because he is growing more and more certain that Kakashi will not care if he bothers to pick up on Sai’s chakra. He is right, and he is furious, because Kakashi does not teach at all. He lets all three of them waste time on spars with no guidance and then sends them on D-rank mission after D-rank mission and pretends to read his book.

And then the team leaves for a C-rank mission and Sai is terrified because this team has no training and Sakura will not be _safe,_ she is not ready for anything and she is going outside the walls of Konoha and outside of Sai’s jurisdiction and he tears his apartment apart four times and destroys three training yards and sleeps in her room every night waiting for her to come back. Please, please, come back.

 She does, but she is in a terrible state, and her teammates are worse off.

 This, this is why Sai is so unhappy: after all of this, Kakashi _still does not teach her._

He sees it. His Sakura has learned how to walk on walls and she does so expertly and quickly that it hints at the intense chakra-control she has being even better than he first thought. Her teammates struggle with it, laughably so, though they eventually master it as well.

Kakashi spends days going over it with the boys and leaves Sakura to wait unattended. He doesn’t even assign her practices.  When the boys perfect it- to match Sakura, Sai thinks bitterly- Kakashi begins to teach them jutsus geared to their strengths. He favors the Uchiha, which is not surprising, since the boy is essential to the village’s strength and he shares much in common with Kakashi- but he finds time to egg on Naruto, set up a rivalry and have the boys push each other.

Sakura he leaves alone. Sakura, he has tag along, as if she’s a fan and not an equal member of the team. If she masters something, he uses it as bait for the boys to improve. If she fails at something, she is left to resolve it on her own or never fix it at all. The man insults her for her weakness and then does nothing to make her stronger. 

Kakashi is a rat that Sai would like to gut. He is an old dog to be put down. He is a foolish, idiotic, _useless_ -

Kakashi is a teacher who’s lessons are meant to keep his students alive who refuses to teach, and Sai can think of no worse insult than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good luck kakashi, it was real nice knowing ya


	4. Sai Snaps (it's great)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they meet!

Sai does not do any of the things he wants to do because they would not be helpful and might upset Sakura, and it’s very important that Sakura is not upset and that the situation is helped. So he must tap down on the entrenched desire to fight, to take revenge, to destroy the man so frustratingly in his way- he must tap down on that particualr urge very, very hard. 

 Instead, he does something much more difficult than figuring out how to murder an ANBU agent who potentially has more skills than Sai does: he decides to assign himself a mission. A thought out, planned, difficult one.  No one else will do what needs to be done, so Sai must do it himself: he will be Sakura’s teacher. It's so simple, he is almost surpised he had not thought of it before- but if Danzo had not died, he would have had someone else to report to. He would not be able to choose what he can do. He is growing happier every day that his old commander died. 

First, he must figure out how to ‘meet’ her. He is not an expert, but he knows you are not ever supposed to let a target know that you have been observing them. This is normally for short-term assassination missions, but he assumes the length of the recon period does not improve the target’s understanding of the situation. So, he must create an excuse to have them meet.

His heart flutters delightfully at the idea of getting to have her _look_ at him.

In the end, he keeps it simple.  Sure, he fantasizes about earning her admiration by beating up her sensei (bloody, brutal, no reserves, kill him, _kill him and give her his head as proof and-_ stop. Sakura would not find that impressive. Probably.) or helping her with her shopping, but he must be logical. He will meet her on the training grounds, so that his interest in her fighting will not be alarming to her.

When she is left behind to avoid going home, and the boys are racing each other to wherever they decide is most difficult, and Kakashi is long since gone, he finally approaches.

“I didn’t know this training field was taken.” He says, with no inflection, because he doesn’t want to her to grow used to a Sai he cannot perform regularly. He cannot be very friendly and he cannot be nuanced, but he can be perceptive and he will learn to be kind. For her, he’ll try. She stumbles back in surprise and he’s already considering training that would help prepare her for shock more easily.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I’m just cleaning up, I’ll be out of your way really soon!” She says, and he shakes his head.

“I could use a training partner, if you aren't busy?” He offers, already knowing she’s too clever to think he’s some rank genin she could compete with. His stance, his weapons, should tell her that much.

“I’m really not much of a sparring partner.” She says, voice barely wobbling at the truth in the statement. Good. He loves it when she’s observant. He forces his eyes to widen slightly, his head to tilt introspectively. An expression of recognication, faintly, to worm it's way onto his face. 

“Aren’t you one of the newest genin?”

“Ah, yes! I’m Sakura Haruno, Team Seven. So you see, I’m sure you could use a better training partner than a- uh, fresh academy kid.”

“Sakura Haruno…. I remember your academy scores. Lots of potential, I’m surprised I haven’t been hearing more about you lately in the rumor mills about the chuunin exams. Especially considering your teammates.”

Perhaps it’s a tip of his hand, but he can’t help but try and push the compliment on her. He can see the bright blush forming on her so quickly, a lovely thing as she shies away at the attention.

“Potential, really?” She asks, and he nods.

“Good scores, brilliant strategy, high chakra control. I like to keep an eye out for potential betting options come the exams, after all.”

It’s nearly true: at least one of his teammates has, since danzo’s death, become a bit of a gambler, and he kept those stats and habits in mind even while on hold from missions. The man bets jutsu lessons, after all, and Sai enjoys collecting on those debts.

 Sakura is turning a delightful shade of red and her body is shaking in the way that most would read as fear, but experience has taught him is excitement and nervous tension. He can see one of her beautiful plans forming, and can only hope it’s the same as his. He’s not disappointed.

“Would you teach me?” She shouts, and he allows himself a smile. She stutters a recovery, adding, “I’d make an even better betting option then, right?”

“Mm. What about your jounin-sensei, doesn’t he teach you already?”

It’s hard to keep the bitterness out of the non-question, but he manages. It’s important they establish a basis of trust right away.

“My sensei….”

And he can see she is trying to decipher how to phrase this politely, to not offend her new potential teacher without hiding the desperate need for him.

“My sensei has his hands full with my teammates.” Is what she goes with, and Sai does not hide his glower at this point. Let her get used to it: she deserves to have someone angry on her behalf.

“Ridiculous. Favoritism amongst genin leads to unnecessary death and over-sized egos, your sensei should know better.  I’ll teach you.”

 And then, because he knows it will lead to questions he does not want to answer and because she’s naïve enough to do it, especially since he’s just agreed to do her a favor, he nudges her shoulder and leans in and asks, “Could you keep this training a secret until after the exams?”

When she gives him a questioning look- but a trusting one, and it sets his head afire to know she’s beginning to care about him, _him,_ and so quickly! _-_ he gives her a conspiratorial smile. “Imagine the look on their faces when an unassuming civilian wins the tournament- and the payoff from the bets.”

She stumbles for a second, likely over the implied victory over her teammates more than the reference to gambling, before giving him a shove even as she laughs. “Shishou! Don’t be so cocky!” She scolds, and he’s momentarily distracted from the familiarity and warmth of it all by the words.

“Shishou?” He questions, and she blushes again at the focus.

“You’re way too young to be going by Sensei, and you haven’t told me your name yet, so…”

Oh, yes, names. He forgot that he had one, sometimes. How exciting, to have a chance to use it.

“My name is Sai, but I think I prefer Shishou. Perhaps I should come up with a nickname for you, too, hm?”

“what kind of nickname?” she asks, squinting her eyes and holding back a laugh. He refuses to give her a single expression to hint at what it might be, and tilts his head at her in a manner he hopes is endearing.

“Mm, it will just have to wait until after your first lesson, won’t it?”

The promise of her first lesson so soon is more than enough to erase any traces of concern. Sai could grow quiet partial to this ‘nickname’ idea. It seems the sort of thing friends do, and he would very much like to be friends with Sakura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no kakashi death, unfortunately. 
> 
> Research says Shishou is actually more respectful than sensei which is probably the highlight Sai's day right now.   
>  Still figuring out their 'voices', especially Sai's, but things will be a lot easier now that it's past introductions and it doesn't have to be SO exposition focused.


	5. Hey, Ugly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A nickname is chosen, Sakura does some thinking, and we should all start planning Team 7's funeral. I think lilies would look really nice, don't you?

Has he has her hold a particularly difficulty pose- one that is, technically, the start to a taijutsu m”ove reserved for ANBU, but he’s certain she’ll be ANBU so soon there is no reason not to give her a headstart- he considers the names he could give her.

 He would love to call her something lovely. He could name after the birds darting around them, after the sweet smell of flowers near them. He could do these things, and she would like it, probably. But Sai cannot help but consider what her jounin-sensei calls his team: ‘my cute little genins’, he says, and it lets Sai know exactly what he should call Sakura-kun.

“Hey, Ugly, you’re supposed to be bending deeper.” He says, and she stumbles and falls over at the words.

“Shishou!” She complains, rolling up to berate him even as she gets back into the position and pushes herself into a deeper bend. (So determined, his lovely student is! What an unappreciated stubbornness.) “You can’t call me ugly!” She adds, even as she grunts from the effort of the stretch.

“Why not?” He asks, and she pouts.

“Cause- cause it’s mean!”

“Hm. I think it’s a compliment.” He tells her, and he can see the moment the question forms in her head. “A good Shinobi isn’t pretty. Nobody looks pretty when they’re sweaty and gross and covered in blood, do they?”

“No….”

“Getting old- surviving to get wrinkles, that’s not pretty, is it? Any skilled Shinobi will get scars at some point- are scars cute?”

“No!” Sakura says, but it’s not in protest. It’s clicking. She’s getting it.

“Civilians can be pretty. Let weaklings waste their time wanting to be _beautiful._ You’re better than that, Sakura! You have potential to be amazing, and anybody who says you should settle for _cute_ is an obstacle in your way.” He tells her, and is surprised at how much emotion is in his voice as he says it. He calms himself, and adds, seriously, “What do you want to be, Sakura?”

She is pouring down sweat from holding a position that you only need to keep briefly for the taijutsu to work. She is smelly and gross and starting to tear up from the pain of it. She takes a deep breath- as deep as she can from the positon- and she says, barely stuttering on the word, “I want to be Ugly, shi-shou!”

“Good!” He tells her, and then nudges her over so she falls on her ass. He holds at a hand to help her up, and she takes it easily.

“Now, let’s _really_ get started with your training, eh, Ugly?”

She giggles and bumps her sticky shoulder into his chest. “Yes sir, shishou sir!”, and he resists the bizarre urge to ruffle her hair.

\--

Lessons have been…..odd, lately.

 For the past couple of weeks, Kakashi-sensei would tell him to practice the Rassen-whatever that Jiriyia taught him, and he’d tell Sakura to practice walking on water some more, and then he’d take Sasuke to go practice some Uchiha clan fire jutsu stuff in a field were it won’t set anything on fire.

 That’s not what’s weird- Sensei does that pretty often, when he’s not sending them on D-missions or teaching them all a jutsu together. What’s weird is that even though Sakura _says_ ‘Yes, Sensei!’, and goes over to the lake, as soon as Sasuke and Kakashi leaves, she starts doing stretches and katas and stuff.

She doesn’t even go in the water half the time! And the other half she’s doing her practice stuff _on_ the lake, which Naruto guesses technically meets Kakashi’s instructions, but it’s totally more than that and he doesn’t know what she’s doing. He’d probably go investigate- especially when she’s doing the weird bendy stuff, because Jiryia told him it was important to pay attention when girls do that sort of thing- but he’s still struggling with his jutsu and he doesn’t want Sasuke to out pace him.

So Naruto is probably the _most_ ready for when Sakura shows up to their first spar in a while with a hair cut and a new outfit. He’s still really surprised, but at least he’s starting to get used to Sakura doing something kind of weird- the rest of the team, he notes with some pleasure, is looking way more shocked.

Kakashi had said at the ending training the other day that this spar would be important for their future careers as shinobi, apparently, and that they should take it very seriously. Sakura had run off so excitedly that Naruto knew _something_ had to be coming. Apparently Sasuke and Kakashi had missed the excitement in her run and had assumed she was just _running._

“Mah, Sakura, a makeover?” Kakashi asks with a twinkle in his eye. She shoots him a surprisingly confident grin and says,

“Don’t you think long hair was a little risky?” She gives a toss of her very short hair to demonstrate just how much she’s chopped off.

“What, and a crop-top isn’t?” Sasuke accuses, gesturing at her new clothes increduliously. She’s wearing black pants and a black crop top and while her arms are covered, her stomach isn’t- and it has a surprisingly number of scratches and scars, not to mention bruises, splashed across it. It’s also too big on her, if manageably so.  

She blushes and concedes, “I had to borrow something. I’m going shopping after this with ino-chan with something more appropriate, but I couldn’t show up to such an important spar in my dress! After all, this is about the chuunin exams, right?”

The boys whipped their heads to stare accusingly at Kakashi, who grins and tilts his head acquiescingly. “Very astute, my cute little genin! Yes, it is. I wanted to see how you fare against each other before deciding if I’d enter you or not. I’m glad to see you’re taking this seriously, Sakura-san.”

She coolly pools out a scroll and pulls out a very large sword from it. “I’m sure we all are, Sensei! So, when can we start?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> up next: ass whoopin', some jealousy (from an unexpected source), and Sai gets to be happy


	6. Bring your shishou to work day

“Yes, well, I think we can start right away if everyone feels prepared.” Kakashi says, slightly taken aback.

 A new outfit was one thing- taking interest in her clothing, afterall, seemed only natural- but training with a weapon without him was much more surprising. Her teammates give varyingly openly enthusiastic agreements, but it’s obvious from their steady gaze that all three of his cute little genin are ready for the challenge.

“All right then! Ah, I thought we could be a bit sentimental.” He says, and he pulls out the slightly-bent bells from their very first test. “This time, though, you really shouldn’t work together- you won’t be able to during the exam, so I need to know how you’ll do when it’s time to stand on your own.”

They all nodded, sparing glances at each other. Who attacks who first? Naruto, straightforward as he is, would likely go straight for the bells. Sasuke would probably try to eliminate his teammates first to prevent their attempts interfering with his plan to get the bells from Kakashi. Sakura…. well, Kakashi had little idea what she would do, but he guessed she’d be willing to take out Naruto but not Sasuke, regardless of if she’s got the skill to do either. (she doesn’t, of course, but it’s the principle of the thing.) He intends this to be a test of determination more than her actual skills, after all- he doesn’t expect any of his genin to win the exams, just earn some experience.

“Mm- GO!” He shouts, and does a quick substitution.

His predictions play out perfectly. Naruto dives at his shadow clone, while Sasuke and Sakura quickly retreat in opposite directions, presumably to prepare. (Sakura’s retreat takes her up a tree, and he’s pleased to see she’s kept up her chakra walking practice like he told her to.)

It’s easy enough to block Naruto’s flailing punches, even when the kid makes a full dozen extra clones to help out. He takes too long forming his jutsu for Kakashi to be unable to interrupt the flow of handsigns every time, and it’s almost getting a little boring when he feels a presence spark behind him.

Sakura comes flying towards him, sword balanced almost perfectly for a killing strike. He rolls out of the way, sparing a glance towards the Sakura still in the tree across from him and curses- when did she pick up _genjutsu?_ He dispelled the illusion quickly now that he knew to look for it- it wasn’t yet perfected, but it had good weight and must’ve required some practice to get as accurate as she had- and dodges another strong attack, throwing one of his kunai at her and forcing her to retreat without her blade.

  Sasuke uses the distraction to attack as well, and Naruto has managed to get back up and throw himself at Kakashi even as Sasuke releases a stream of fire that slides like a ribbon towards him, eventually circling Naruto and trapping the kid to keep him out of the fight for a while.

There’s a few minutes of sparring purely devoted to the two of them, then- Kakashi half-paying attention and Sasuke doing rather well with his newly learned jutsu from the past few weeks. They’d all demonstrated some growth in this session, even if Naruto was severely in need of more training, and Kakashi had the information he needed- as soon as he finished beating them, as nicely as possible of course, he’d tell them that they can apply for the exam.  

He’s halfway through this thought when he spots Sakura, slightly out of the way of the fight and quickly moving through a complex set of hand signs.

His eye brows shoot up and Sasuke manages to get a single hit in during the moment of distraction.

Who the hell taught her _poison corroding arm_? That move wasn’t even written down, it was exclusively for high-ranking jounin, at least partially because of the damage it can do the wielder as much as the victim, and-

She performed the signs perfectly, quickly, and she is running right for him, a trace of bundled chakra in her arm the only sign that she is about to risk _melting_ her sensei or teammate if she isn’t very, _very_ careful. Kakashi shoves Sasuke away quickly with enough strength to land him in the lake, and drops to knock Sakura’s feet out from under her; she recovers by turning it into a graceful tumble-jump over him, allowing the arm she’s channeling the acid through to catch her and burn through the ground as she flips over it and lands back on her feet. Sustaining the jutsu is getting too risky so she releases it and begins the hand signs for another, less powerful one.  

Sasuke has gotten back up just as Naruto has escaped the fire-prison and all three of his students are charging at him at once when he yells, “Stop!”

Sasuke stops instantly. Naruto manages to veer his course and stumble to a halt. Sakura doesn’t even _pause,_ launching at him with a kunai drawn and he has to catch her by the collar of her shirt and hold her, like a kitten by the scruff of the neck. She flails wildly for a few seconds before she realizes her teammates had stopped fighting, and she looks at Kakashi with surprise.

“Oh, you were serious?” She says, and he sighs.

“And why exactly wouldn’t I be, Sakura?”  he asks, already dreading the amount of paperwork this whole situation is going to require.

“Shishou says you can’t stop a spar until someone wins ‘cuz an enemy nin won’t let you take a break, so….” She justifies, twiddling her fingers in a faintly familiar manner (like that of the hyuuga heir, perhaps?) and Kakashi releases his hold on her so she falls to the ground with a whoop.

“And has this Shishou of yours been teaching you a lot?” Kakashi presses, and Sakura perks up immediately.

“Yeah, every day! He’s super strong and he knows lots of jutsu and he says I’ve got lots of _potential_ so he doesn’t mind taking the time to teach me.”

“Hey, no fair, I want a shishou too!” Naruto calls out, and sasuke seems to be pouting even if he’s not saying anything. Ugh, children.

“Mah, Naruto, don’t you have Jiryia-sama for that?” Kakashi calls out, and doesn’t bother to point out to Sasuke he already has the best specialist for his jutsu in the village giving him one-on-one attention.

“How about we all meet your Shishou, Sakura?” He adds, and she nods eagerly before hesitating momentarily.

“As long as you guys don’t ask him to train you too. He’s, uh, really busy.” She hastily adds, and Kakashi coughs awkwardly to hide a laugh.

“You have my word they won’t bother him.” He reassures her, and her previous enthusiasm returns.

“I’m got training with him tomorrow morning at three, if you want to come say hi! I’m sure he won’t mind.” She says, and they all pale at the thought. Three? Ah, the sacrifices they make for curiosity.

\--

There are a lot of things Team could expect when they go to meet Sakura’s ‘Shishou’.

 Sasuke has his suspicions it’s someone related to Ino Yamanaka. Someone with a soft spot for civilians and Ino’s friends, and who probably wasted half the training time comforting Sakura over her failures.

Kakashi expects a rival, one of the jounin he’d embarrassed over the years and would hold on to petty grudges like that. Maybe a jounin who’d requested a team and been passed over for the unwilling Hatake this year.

Naruto expects someone a little crazy considering the time, who’s trying to steal his Sakura-chan from him. He doesn’t really consider it much beyond that, actually.

 None of them are expecting to find Sakura running laps around a boy their age, dropping to do push ups every second lap and sending flying kicks and punches towards the boy’s easy blocks every chance she gets. It takes a moment for her to register their presence, but Kakashi notes that the boy seems fully aware of their arrival.

“Ah, hey guys!” She calls out, and looks towards her Shishou without stopping until he gives her a nod. She starts her cool-down by making her way over to them at a light jog, crossing her arms and doing small stretches when she reaches them.

“This is Sai, my Shishou!” She tells them, and she drags them over happily towards the boy. Sai is not giving them nearly as friendly a look.

“Sai, this is my team, like I was telling you!” She says, and he gives her a polite small.

“ah, yes, team seven.” Sai focuses his attention on Naruto, surprisingly, and gives him the nicest smile out of the boys. “Ugly says you’re very nice, Naruto-san. It’s good to meet you.” He is noticeably silent when it comes to greeting the others.

Sakura punches him lightly on the arm, muttering something about not embarrassing her, but lets the comment slide.

“Ugly?” questions Naruto, even as he turns red at the compliment supposedly from Sakura. Sakura nods happily and they all try to ignore how close she’s standing to Sai. Well, it’s not the first time the girl has put up with insults from a boy she likes, and it likely won’t be the last.

_Honestly, preteens and their crushes. He’s not paid enough for this._

“Why are you teaching Sakura?” Sasuke asks, because it’s 3 am and he’d like to get this over with and go back to bed. Sai gave a pointed look towards Kakashi.

“it seemed she wasn’t getting enough instruction from her Jounin-sensei, so I was happy to take her on as a student. She’s very talented, I’m sure she’ll be my superior officer soon enough.” He answers, and Sakura is the only one who notices the note of _honesty_ in what he says.

 _Ah, how cute._ Kakashi allows himself to relax, because it’s obvious this Sai boy is trying to get Sakura to like him. A little extra training is a pretty solid excuse to spend time together, actually- the boy will probably grow up to be something of a Casanova, ha. Sakura certainly has interesting taste.

“Work?” Sasuke prompts, clearly not buying what Sai says but unwilling to press for more. When Sai gives him a confused look, he adds, “what do you do?”

“Mm, sorry, it’s classified.” Says Sai, and he does not look sorry at all. His stance is familiar, but Kakashi cannot place it, which likely means he’s done at least one high-ranking mission with the boy.  

Mm. So Sakura has an admirer who’s playing himself up to impress her? _Adorable,_ Kakashi concludes despite himself, and he sets to dragging the boys along to get some ribbing in even as they protest about the early hour. He can just pop by the HQ later and make some suggestions to the captain to remind his soldiers that you can’t go handing out special jutsu, even when you _really_ want to impress a girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura hasn't been training long enough to truly fuck Kakashi up but she sure can freak him out right now
> 
> I like to think Sai has no boundaries when it comes to teaching because he has no idea what moves are 'offlimits', so she gets academy jutsu right next to ANBU tricks. 
> 
> Next chapter gives both kakashi and sai a potential freak out moment, but only one will survive the terrordome *dundundun*
> 
> (if you want a fic where Sakura gets a big fuckin sword and possibly murders Kakashi, may I point you towards my fic Salt in the Wound which will have an entire chapter dedicated to that scenario?)


	7. pull back the curtain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi connects the dots

Honestly, Kakashi was rather surprised when he realized that, technically, his most successful student was Sakura.

 They had all passed the chuunin exams, but Naruto had sputtered out in the meantime and was still serving as Jiriya-Sama’s apprentice, training to control the kyubi. Apparently, it wasn’t going easily. Sasuke, meanwhile, was spending his time burning himself on mission after mission, constantly demanded more difficult challenges and searching for a teacher as important as Naruto’s, which reassures Kakashi that at least _that_ little rivalry was something that would never change. Despite all his efforts, his rather single-minded focus had turned Sasuke into a narrow-skilled ninja who could only be used on missions that required no subtilty and no survivors.

 Sakura, meanwhile, had flourished. She’d reached jounin, and now he’s got no idea what she’s doing at least half the time because the missions are classified above his rank. He knows she’s served as a captain on a couple teams but prefers to play support, has gone on missions with her before. She’s talented, certainly- quick to adapt and clever and finding practical solutions. Perhaps most importantly, she’s very good at inspiring devotion in her teams, especially since she’s rare to leave a shinobi behind. She’s skilled and kind, a risky combination for a ninja, but she makes it work and her teammates love her for it because it keeps them not just safe, but relatively mentally sound. _Haruno_ is quickly becoming synonymous with effective leadership, and Kakashi allows himself a little pride at that. Who’d have thought his cute little genin would grow up to be so successful? Sure, eventually she’d be outclassed in power levels, but it was impressive how well she’d matched her teammate’s strides.

 Still, regardless of who was furthest along so far, all three of his students were relatively well, mostly sane, and completely alive, which meant Kakashi was willing to relax and settle into something of a routine.

  He’s working on an ANBU mission- he hasn’t officially rejoined, per say, but he doesn’t say no to any of the missions he’s been assigned with them so far- when his understanding of things shifts, and he gets a rude reminder that taking things at surface value can be very dangerous.

 The mission is just him and another ANBU, was supposed to be a simple recon but of course they’d been spotted and it had turned into an all-out brawl. It’s nothing too serious, but he’s still surprised when his previously-mute partner calls out to him.

 “You know, she doesn’t call you sensei.” The ANBU says, with a tone that matches the curling grin on his mask.

Before Kakashi can ask what the agent means, the enemy renews their effort, and he has to turn his attention back to the fight. It doesn’t take long to finish the team off- they must be chuunin rank, no match for two jounin- but they have to beat a hasty retreat to avoid any potential back-up who could identify them as Leaf Nin and cause a minor political incident.

The voice was familiar, and he’s mulling the sound over in his mind for days until it snaps into place. _Sai._

He’d seen the boy since that first morning meeting him, certainly- the kid had a habit of hovering around Sakura, after all, when the girl in question wasn’t clinging to him on her own. But he wasn’t exactly talkative, at least to anyone besides his student, and the voice was indistinctive enough to be hard to place.

So the boy really had been high-ranking, but _ANBU_? Perhaps he’d had a promotion since that day three years ago, but this was enough of a surprise for Kakashi to reevaluate what he’d assumed about Sai.

Isolated and focused, he hadn’t been the flirt that Kakashi had thought- he was a constant presence at Sakura’s side, and didn’t seem interested in interacting with other people for the most part, much less other girls. His skill level on their mission hinted at years of experience, which meant that he probably really had been ANBU when he first took Sakura on as a student. Why would a solitary, uncommunicative boy with a busy schedule filled with A-rank missions take the time to teach a unskilled stranger?

 A part of Kakashi wants to see it in the best light. Sakura had been friendly and polite as a youngster, and Sai _had_ been a preteen boy. It could be as simple as the crush he’d assumed the first time around- but he has a growing sense of dread over accepting things at face value again. When it came to ANBU, nothing should ever be assumed, especially not for the best.

 His first thought is that she was getting groomed for ROOT. The division had specialized in taking on clanless kids and converting them into killers, after all, but ROOT had disbanded before her new attitude during the team training had appeared.

  His second thought is more concerning, because he’s used to child soldiers as a concept- anyone in Konoha had to be, after all. But he remembers when ROOT had re-merged with ANBU (the ones who had wanted too anyways) there’d been gossip about the new guys’ quirks. One of them had quickly developed a gambling habit. Another apparently had a fetish for feet that had accidentally been discovered mid-mission. A third collected porcelain cat figurines.

 And one of them stalked a civilian girl as a hobby.

It had been said as a joking exaggeration, sure, but it’d never been disproved, and the agents who’d worked with that particular nin had said it wasn’t much of an exaggeration at all.

Kakashi had never bothered to pry, because he took it as relatively harmless in the scheme of coping mechanisms and it’s not like he’d ever met the agent himself. Nobody had tried to stop him from caring around his copy of ICHA ICHA, after all, and he figured it was just general courtesy to let them keep their quirks.

He goes to the Haruno house first, and learns for the first time- from a sour looking woman, with Sakura’s eyes and none of temperament- that the girl had moved out three years ago and refused contact with her family since.

Kakashi did not bother to hear the rest of the woman’s rant on ungrateful children, and it took him three hours of searching to find Sakura’s apartment.

It’s nondescript, but the door has been painted red, and Kakashi tries to calm his nerves and actually _knock_ on the door because she’s a jounin now, and any jounin worth their salt has a million traps to prevent sudden intrusions.

 Sai answers the door, and gives him a very bland look.

“Oh, hello, Kakashi.” He says, and does not welcome the man in.

“Kakashi?”

The voice is from behind and Sai. Sakura is dressed casually and carrying a bag of flour on one hip, and she’s just spotted Kakashi from over Sai’s shoulder and gives him a friendly smile.  “Oh, wow, it’s been a while! Okay if we take a moment Shishou?”

Sai gives her a brilliant smile and says, “Of course, Ugly. It will take a while for me to finish dinner anyways.”

She brushes past him and passes over the flour as she goes, closing the door behind her as she joins Kakashi on the front porch. (Kakashi would be surprised if Sai _isn’t_ listening in, but there’s little he can do about that, so he’ll just have to go ahead anyways.)

“So what brings you around, Kakashi?” She asks, genuinely looking curious. They’ve met for lunch a few times, but they’ve both been rather busy, and social calls have never been her jounin-sensei’s style.

 

Sai is in the kitchen, standing very still and listening very closely. He has learned, by now, it is rude to do this, but Sakura’s former sensei has always put him on edge, and the man has never taken an interest in visiting Sakura before. He considers this reason enough to make an exception on his new rules of ‘privacy’.

He listens as the horrible man explains to Sakura all the things that Sai has worked so very hard to conceal. She knew about his past in ROOT, but she did not know-

She did not know their history. Now she does, from the mouth of a man that Sai should have killed years ago like he wanted to, ripped his jaw off or his tongue out before he ever had a chance to ruin what Sai has worked so _hard_ for.

Sakura had taught him about privacy and kindness and social rules. She’d taught him about friends and shared hers- Naruto and Ino and Shikamaru- had encouraged him when he began to make his own. He’d painted every wall in his house a different color and she had helped him fill it with things that were useless but made him happy, knickknacks and souvenirs and comfort things like blankets and beds.

 He had gotten his wish of her as his captain, more often than not, had served on the same team as her for a hundred missions at least in the past three years. She had grown into an efficient killing machine, like he’d always known she would- but she had also gotten so good at protecting, saving, and he was delighted in the changes she brought to the ANBU organization with her stubbornness when it came to preserving her values.

 This man was going to take that all away, and-

And Sakura was finally saying something and Sai would always, _always_ listen when Sakura spoke. It was instinct- differing to her was more natural than breathing.

“So you’re telling me…. That a six-year-old randomly decided to stalk another six-year-old. For years. With zero interactions. Are you fucking _crazy, Kakashi?_ ”

This is not what he thought he would hear. His heart flutters erratically and he prays-

“You’re living with a boy you met three years ago instead of your family, Sakura. You _know_ what the operation is for abuse- they isolate you until you have to depend on them. Surely you can see your situation is unusual?”

There is the sound of at least one rib-cracking, because Sakura has always been soft-hearted and if she had slapped her sensei like she wanted to she might’ve snapped his neck with the force. She’s talking in heated whispers but Sai can hear every word because he does not care if he went deaf for it, he needs to know _exactly_ what she says.

“I’m the one who approached Sai for lessons, and I’m the one who asked to live with him.” She says.

It’s true. He had no idea when it was appropriate, if it was ever appropriate, to offer- but the day after she became chuunin she had approached him. Asked if she could live with him, had trusted him enough to tell him in stilted words about not feeling safe staying in her house anymore. That she had come to him, had chosen him out of anyone- the memory of it alone was enough to calm his frantic pulse.

“I don’t depend on Sai and he doesn’t depend on me. I have a career, and friends, and I’m better off as far away from the _Harunos_ as possible. May you’d know some of that if you’d bothered to ever pay attention to your ‘cute little genin’, Kakashi. Don’t you ever come to our home again, and don’t you _ever_ try to interfere with my life.”

Sai is dutifully preparing their meal when she reappears in the kitchen, door closed behind her with a slam. “So, any thoughts on dessert?” She asks, and he feels the last of the tension leave him. They were fine. They’d both be tightly wound for the next few days, but they’d be fine. 

Distantly, as he makes his way to a hospital to get two of his ribs repaired, Kakashi notes that Sai had told the truth: Sakura hadn’t called him Sensei in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) kakashi's observations on Sai are old and off-base, a mixture of what was already shown in the previous chapters & then aspects of his healthier life now. (AKA, kakashi remembers sai as being isolated because sai was, but no longer is- kakashi isn't involved in sakura's life enough to see that sai has a social life of his own now. His only recent exposure to sai has been when they're in the field, where sai is either withdrawn or focused on protecting sakura.)
> 
> 2) sakura would probably believe kakashi if it wasn't coming FROM kakashi, and it wasn't ABOUT sai. we all have our blind spots, and it'd have to be someone she really trusted to believe anything negaive about her shishou
> 
> 3) one more chapter to go, and it's 100% cutsey and involves all of team seven (minus kakashi, for obvious reasons)


	8. epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he's not joking

They have a standing team lunch date, with Sai as an unspecified but consistent tag along. It’s a lovely day, only slightly marred by the sound of Sasuke and Naruto bickering. Again. Sakura sometimes forgets just how annoying it is when team seven gets together as a collective and have to actually interact with each other. Thankfully, Sai is a soothing presence at her side, sketching away peacefully as he considers a nearby civilian family with an artistic eye. He’s gotten rather good at quickly capturing domestic scenes, and Sakura is delighted at how much his work as softened around the ages as he’s grown less tense over the years.

“I’m going to be Hokage! I’m the most powerful, it only makes sense!” Naruto is more-or-less shouting, even as he shoves more of his fifth sandwich into is mouth. Sasuke snorts.

“As if they’d put an idiot like you in charge of anything.” He says, and then in a calculated move that Sakura is certain is only done to piss Naruto off, he adds, “Besides, I’m more powerful, so I would be Hokage before they’d ever consider you, dobe.”

The sandwich falls out of Naruto’s mouth in shock and Sakura covers up a laugh. The squabbling grows louder, and just when she’s considering cutting in before they get thrown out of the café, Sai speaks up for the first time in the full 45 minutes of the meal since he’d ordered his coffee.

“Sakura will be Hokage.” He says, and then he returns to his drawing.

Sasuke looks at him with squinted eyes. “ _Will?”_ He questions, inspecting Sai for any trace of humor. Sai does not bother to look up from his drawing as he replies,

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> first time ever writing romance- much one as unusual as this- so please forgive the stiltedness. this chapter is really just about establishing everything.


End file.
